My Vanity Shame: How I Decluttered my Cr*p Room

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This is my shame. I’m going to air it out , clean it up and hopefully… keep it that way. We all have that room in the house that you close the door on when guests come around and pretend it doesn’t exist. Ok well that feels like my whole house, but in particular our guest room.

I only remembered to take a picture part way through tidying… but let’s pretend this is as bad as it gets….

I’ve always wanted a pretty dressing table where I can lay out all my pretty things and that would be my space, just for me. And then I got one! Hallelujah! And what did I do? I took all my pretty things…. and I dumped them. On the floor. Next to my vanity. ‘I’ll sort it later’. Story of my life! And each day I step over them, rummage through for something I need and watch as the dust piles up. Well it stops now!

How to Declutter

Step 1: Clear the dust

Bit self explanatory. Everything was very dusty. Cue my coughing and spluttering as I pick up things I’ve forgotten I had and run a cloth over it. I have a habit of stuffing things into little bags and boxes and thinking ‘ah it’ll be safe there’. Too safe it seems. I spent the entire time thinking such things as:

‘oooh urban decay primer samples!’

‘that’s where my 3 unopened bottles of perfume are!’

and ‘why on earth do I need 4 different black eye liners when I don’t wear eyeliner?’

I certainly felt very guilty wiping the dust off my favourite eyeshadow palettes. It seems life gets in the way and I just don’t get around to using them…

Step 2: Organise the Crap

I sorted my huge pile into lots of little ones with very little optimism that it was ever going to fit into the space I needed it to. So, these piles were:

Everyday makeup (needs to be very easily accessible or I’ll just leave it laying where I used it)

Lips (I am a little obsessed with lippy)

Hair

Nails (never do my nails so why on earth do I have 350, 000 nail varnishes?!)

Eyes

Jewellery

Step 3: Organise each pile into neat boxes

Boxes are something I’m not lacking in; if something comes in a nice sturdy box I keep it meaning I have lots of lidded boxes lying around. My favourite of these are my boxes from my monthly beauty box Cohorted (No affiliation, I just love the service!), they’re black and sturdy, come with a magnetic flip lid and a pretty ribbon on the front. While I have thrown a few of these out (one a month adds up) I’ve kept some and they came in very useful today!

So the nails varnishes were unceremoniously plonked into their own box, lid on and hidden away. Maybe now that they’re all in one place I might have an urge for pretty nails sometime.

Maybe I should open a nail bar….

The lipsticks (crayons, stains and glosses… as I said, obsessed!) were only slightly more delicately plonked into their own box.

Repurposed Lacoste box!

I had an old Lacoste box that has been valiantly holding makeup for me for probably close to 10 years. Still going incredibly strong (though perhaps in need of a makeover). So I sat it inside its own lid and stood all my palettes upright in it (with the intention that if I can see it, I’m more likely to use it), reminiscent of these kinds of storage systems, if a little more…. rustic.

All small hair ‘things’ went into a zippy case (also Lacoste, also about 10 years old… I loved the perfume as a teenager).

At this point everything is starting to look a little more manageable.

Step 4: Get in into the vanity!

Now it was time, the final stretch! The moment of ‘maybe I can do something with the rest of my Saturday!’ with a touch of ‘perhaps the day wasn’t fully wasted after all!’ with a huge hit of ‘I can’t wait for a cuppa after this!’.

This step was quick and easy once everything was in boxes. Big items go under the vanity (I’ll sort it out later… famous last words).

Under the vanity… but for how long?

All tins and sprays go behind the mirror. You’ll never see it, you’d never know it was there!

My second set of brushes (cos you know, one set is just not enough for my one face) go into a jar (recognise it from my How to Remove Sticky Stuff post?)

Who needs this many brushes really?

Daily makeup that can stand on it’s own is permitted to be out (this may be a dangerous choice, I’m a very lazy person!) while the smaller stuff goes into these cute little boxes my mum bought me.

Palettes box gets a corner all of its own (if it’s not out I won’t use it remember?)

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